TORNADO TALK
Wakita, Newkirk hear about ‘Twister' even when weather's fine
Wakita, Newkirk hear about %u2018Twister' even when weather's fine

By Jim Etter

Published: August 27, 2007

WAKITA — When storms are brewing — or sometimes even when the sky is clear — some Oklahomans hear comments about how the weather brought them fame.

In Wakita, the small Grant County town where much of the 1996 Warner Brothers movie "Twister” was filmed, many people still regularly visit the Twister Museum and the area in general, residents say.

"It's just like we're dumbfounded,” said Wakita postmaster Mary Schmitz of the number of visitors. "Some people, you know, are fanatics about tornadoes.”

And, she said, some visitors are actually "storm chasers” — which is what the movie was about. "They're pretty common up here. We've had some guys from England who came back twice.”

In Newkirk, mechanic and body shop operator Bill Horinek apparently doesn't like to talk about himself, but said he regularly gets comments about his "part” — one might say — in the movie.

"It's all the time,” he said of the reaction of customers and others to the "Twister” poster in his office.

It's a reminder of when one of his rebuilt trucks was used in the Steven Spielberg production.

He said he recently was having some office equipment updated, and "a computer guy who was in here was just overwhelmed, and couldn't hardly work, asking about my dealings and stuff.”

Horinek was contacted in 1995 by the movie's filming crew after they had seen a picture of a pickup Horinek had painted. The picture was on the cover of Hot Rod magazine.

Following their request, he acquired and remodeled a 1980 vehicle that once was used in Newkirk as a mail truck.

It was used as one of about three tornado-chasing vehicles in the movie.

Also, some of the film crew came to the Kay County town and motored down Main Street in a caravan.

Horinek, 55, who operates Horinek Body and Glass, said his work has even taken him to foreign countries, and he said he doesn't consider his "Twister” connection "a big impact.”

However, he acknowledges he was impressed when he was asked to do something for the movie.

"I couldn't hardly believe it when I came to work one morning and was told Steven Spielberg had called me — or one of his representatives,” Horinek said. "I thought it was a joke.”

When it comes to real weather, neither Wakita nor Newkirk has been severely hit by storms, but residents in both are no strangers to storm damage and severe weather warnings.

•At Wakita, Schmitz said a school building in town was damaged more than 20 years ago, and there have been several storms in that region.

•Newkirk was hit by a tornado in 1973 that heavily damaged the town and caused at least one injury.

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